SilentX vs Nexus or Enermax

Audiogabby · Post by **Audiogabby** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 7:50 am

A few yrs ago i bought a SilentX 120mm fan and i was amazed at the low noise coming from it. I'm in the process now of putting a new system together and during my research i've noticed that there's not much said about SilentX in these forums. I'm looking for a quiet 80mm this time around. Has anyone compared the SilentX to the likes of Nexus and Enermax ? Your comments are appreciated.

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 9:53 am

Hello,

The reason that you won't find many fans of SilenX (yuk yuk) here on SPCR, is the owner of the company has been banned from these pages for unethical activities -- he was pretending to be an ordinary user and spread lots of hype and exaggerations about their products. In fact, all the claims of incredibly low noise at impossibly high air flow for their various products are pretty laughable. Even if they were true, the company has little chance of selling products to folks around here, who know about their history.

Shadowknight · Post by **Shadowknight** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 11:14 am

re: why we don't like SilenX on this site; start here: viewtopic.php?t=4551

Audiogabby · Post by **Audiogabby** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 1:28 pm

I see, wow, that's too bad.

Anyways, any info on a comparison can be email to me directly. Thanks guys.

JazzJackRabbit · Post by **JazzJackRabbit** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 6:21 pm

I don't have any comparisons, because I don't own nexus fans (other than 120mm). In general, despite spcr hatred towards silenx, even if not without a reason, silenx are generally quiet. Their 80mm fans are almost as quiet as japanaflo, I would actually go as far as to say it would depend on particular samples you have in hand. 120mm are also generally quiet when slowed down, but I can't give you direct comparison with nexus 120 because I never bothered to compare those (since they run at different speeds anyway). BTW, silenx sells several versions of their 120/92/80mm fans that they advertise as having different speeds/noise, but in fact they sell you the same version with inline resistor if needed. So if you plan to get the slowest version and put another resistor inline, beware, the fan might not start.

nutball · Post by **nutball** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 11:42 pm

I compared the SilenX 120mm versus the Nexus 120mm side-by-side several years ago. My recollection is that at equal airflow there was little or nothing between them in turns of volume of noise, but that on the quality of noise (particularly the lack of rattling, etc.) the Nexus had the edge.

I tend to use Nexus by default these days because, despite their exhorbitent cost (especially in the UK) they're generally reliably quiet and they're a known quantity to me now.

Poodle · Post by **Poodle** » Thu Nov 02, 2006 11:04 pm

Enermax can have some motor noise. This motor noise can be eliminated with a tban and setting the right pwm frequency. Then it's very smooth (for ball bearing fan). Tbans are not cheap though.

ATWindsor · Post by **ATWindsor** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 3:41 am

nutball wrote:I compared the SilenX 120mm versus the Nexus 120mm side-by-side several years ago. My recollection is that at equal airflow there was little or nothing between them in turns of volume of noise, but that on the quality of noise (particularly the lack of rattling, etc.) the Nexus had the edge.

I tend to use Nexus by default these days because, despite their exhorbitent cost (especially in the UK) they're generally reliably quiet and they're a known quantity to me now.

I did som A-weighted measurments of 120mms, and the difference between nexus and silenX at the same speed was almost non-existent (withing measuring errors). The same could be said for a good deal of "name-brand"-fans, they seem to be mor or less the same at a given speed.

AtW